Meter woes cost Village of New Paltz lost income

NEW PALTZ — What may look like a gift to motorists has cost the village about $45,000 in parking meter income.

BY JEREMIAH HORRIGAN

NEW PALTZ — What may look like a gift to motorists has cost the village about $45,000 in parking meter income.

Last spring, the Village Board voted to reduce the time allowed for parking from two hours to one hour and to raise the hourly charge from 25 cents to 50 cents. When implementation began in the summer, shopkeepers along the village's core business district complained bitterly about the changes.

Owners of restaurants and businesses, such as Pilates or yoga studios, that required more than an hour's time said the restrictions would damage their businesses and annoy tourists who crowd the village streets during much of the year.

That pressure has resulted in a rollback of the time allowance to two hours, but the new hourly charge will remain 50 cents, said Deputy Mayor Rebecca Rotzler.

Implementation of the new rates, however, has proven to be a problem.

Rotzler said a device that's needed to reprogram each individual meter has been unavailable from the parking meter company since around Labor Day. The device the village DPW has on hand can only re-set the meters for one or four hours.

The resulting delay in getting the meters reset has resulted in the $45,000 loss.